To want something to help me travel by plane

[TheLyingBitchintheWardrobe]

I am travelling to the med for Christmas for a family wedding, but scared of flying as not flown for 5 years. GP won't give me diazepam which I thought I could get. What else can I do? My anxiety is awful already. Can someone help me?

Try some self hypnosis or hypnosis tracks, they can really help relaxation on the plane. Deep breathing and going through the flight in your mind ahead of it can help. Tablets or alcohol can sometimes make the fear worse as you don’t feel in control

I'm the same. Glass of wine helps loads. And I try to focus on the sheer numbers of passengers - millions every year - who travel safely. I tell myself "right this very minute there's thousands of other flights happening, as they were yesterday, as there will be tomorrow". I also try to look around - when there's a bit of turbulence, is anyone else looking as panicky as me? The answer is always no 😂 This calms me down as it helps me recognise that I'm in a unwarranted state of alarm when literally everyone else is sleeping or reading.

Safe travels and enjoy your holiday!

Diazepam costs pennies. It’s not a cost-cutting issue, it’s a safety issue. As others have said, there are other options.

I hate flying, my anxiety is partly rooted in extreme claustrophobia - attempting mindfulness made my anxiety much worse, I have also tried rescue remedy (ha!) CBD, hypnosis, CBT, EMDR, FoF course (my fear isn't related to safety, so wasn't very helpful), and similarly the books relating to FoF haven't helped for the same reasons.

The only thing that ever helped me was diazepam & proplanalol (to a lesser extent) - since these are no longer prescribed I haven't been able to fly, which has been gutting - all my immediate family are overseas.

I keep looking for solutions, and try anything that is suggested, but it is debilitating. I really feel for you xxx

I could have written every word of this post PatheticDistraction.

I have exactly the same problem.

Not remotely concerned about crashing. Just cannot tolerate the suffocating claustrophobia.

So pissed off that diazepam isn’t available.
I am very wary of taking medication in general and my doctor used to prescribe me four pills per trip. (And I only flew twice a year.) Half a pill was sufficient to get me through one flight.
So I would literally have three pills left over every time which I binned. I never used it in other situations. There was no chance of me becoming addicted.

Invested a lot of money and time in various therapies over a decade which didn’t work.

And now I see my family less often.

I'm terrified of flying but have to do Aus-UK once a year and this is what helps me:

Noise cancelling headphones. You can't hear all of the little noises of the plane and you can just zone out a bit. I download heaps of podcasts and that helps break the time up to shorter chunks which helps.

10mg Phenergan (promethazine) - try at home before you fly. Just one tablet before bed. I find they help and you can buy over the counter as they are an anti histamine. I don't drink with these.

I look at the flight radar app quite a bit in the days leading up to my flight and it helps me realise just how many planes are flying at any one time and are landing safely. I also repeat in my head that the journey to the airport was more dangerous and I wasn't worried about that.

Find a mindfulness app that has breathing exercises.

Hope some of that helps.

erm yeah no! The prescription would need to come from the GP not the dentist private or otherwise

@Riverswims why is that? Surely you take the medicine before you fly. A prescription from a dentist is legit. But you wouldn't be carrying the prescription with you on the flight.
It doesn't matter who prescribed it as long as it works.